Tag Archives: Ben Beadle

In its annual review published this week, the TDS Charitable Foundation has revealed it provided £100,000 of funding for educational projects in its first year of operation. The Foundation aims to promote education for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector, and to raise standards in the industry.

Commenting on the report, Chair Professor Martin Partington said;

“We have been delighted at the number and variety of bids received over the year. Demand for funds greatly exceeded the resources we have available; the total value of bids in our first year was nearly £900,000! Initially we funded a number of smaller projects focussing on very local issues. But as the year progressed, the Trustees chose projects that would have greater national reach. For example, the development of training materials for other organisations to use in the delivery of local workshops. We felt this was better value for money, and these training packs are expected in the spring of 2016.”

Projects funded include the National Union of Students “ready to rent” initiative for the delivery of a tenant training programme for students, rolled out through students’ unions and Caerphilly County Borough Council to produce an equalities guidance booklet for landlords in Wales.

The Trustees are also on the lookout for really innovative ways to communicate information to landlords and tenants. For example in its most recent round of funding in October 2015, it funded the Ealing Equality Council £3,612 to deliver twenty four free walk in tenancy and support surgeries from a pop up shop.

Inviting applications for its next round of funding, which closes on the 10th December 2015, Professor Partington said:

“The theme for the last year has been educational projects to landlords and tenants to raise standards, and we are very keen to see bids that meet this objective. However, there is a lot of publicly available information for both landlords and tenants. Some of it is out of date and , more troubling, there is no central place for either of these groups to go to access the information they need.

The Trustees are keen to hear from organisations who would be interested in undertaking a feasibility study on improving the availability and dissemination of information in the private rented sector aimed at landlords and tenants.”